Author Comments

2 and a half years of work have led to this - my little 14 minute epic. To give fair warning, anyone in the mood for straight up action or comedy will probably be disappointed. But it is my hope that those ready to dive into a new world full of fantastic technology, false words, and rising snow will find much to enjoy in Dual Arms Verbatim Part 1.

Those who would like the fullest appreciation of the story are encouraged to peruse the "World" section of the menu, (I've designed it to have no spoilers, save perhaps slightly in the NAU part of the factions).

If you could spare the time, I'd really appreciate any constructive feedback you guys can offer on my work, so if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for me, please leave a review. I can't guarantee a response to each, but be assured that I read every one. Thanks!

EDIT 5: Subs finally active and pausable! Note again that due to a bug, subs are reactivated at the beginning of each scene, regardless of whether they were active or not. I have structured the subs to disappear in several dialogue-less areas, so it may not seem this way, but they are there. There is no known fix to this, but I hope it doesn't inconvenience you too much. Just turn them off if in doubt.
If you come across any other bugs, (including typos and such) please PM me with them (don't review just to tell a bug - pm's are easier for me to keep track of). Thanks!
The previous version added an extra's section with some links. Concept Art is also finally active!
ENJOY!

Anyone who wants more Dual Arms after seeing the movie and REALLY cant wait for part II may appreciate seeing the Verbatim Trailer here http://www.newgrounds.com /portal/view/537880

And if you don't mind some...crappy animation, you can also check out the chronological sequel to the Dual Arms Verbatim plot - Dual Arms Precipice http://www.newgrounds.com /portal/view/411273 It was made before starting Verbatim some 2 years ago, and it shows. My skill was even less then than now, and it has sound problems similar to Verbatim (though it DOES have sloppily done subs). But the plot there is a bit more understandable and in a sort of strange spoiler PRECIPICE CONTAINS THE FINAL FATE OF SETH FROM THIS VIDEO. With that in mind, those who liked Verbatim may enjoy it, so take a look.

EDIT: Woot - Daily third! Thanks to everyone who voted. Rest assured, part 2 WILL be made; you WILL one day see the conclusion of Dual Arms Verbatim, should you choose to do so. With that in mind, please bear with me another few years whilst I set everything in order. T_T I hope the conclusion will rise to your expectations! Thanks again to all who watched.

EDIT 3: FRONT PAGED! YEAAAAAAH. Thanks again to everyone who liked the work, and thanks to Tom for giving me the opportunity to get some more feedback. Part II will come people! Look out for it!

Courteous of you to leave it at "a little" choppy, though I'm glad the other elements came through for you.

Obviously you're thinking in the far, hypothetical future, but honestly, and especially on NG, I've started to picture a hypothetical Dual Arms game as a 2D fighter, maybe with RPG exploration elements, maybe not.

When I first started thinking about Dual Arms years and years and years ago, I thought it could structured game wise as a Sonic game, moving fast in a 3D environment. Then I watched the Sonic series go to shit, an now I don't think gameplay like that is such a good idea. I think Dual Arms might fare well as a simple to learn, ideally hard to master 2D fighter where you choose different characters and fought it out through all the different environments.

Sorry, I like to rant on such things. It's good to know I didn't waste those years. Thanks for reviewing!

Rated 4 / 5 stars2010-06-23 03:32:41

An interesting tale you have woven good sir

Well, well, well... where to begin?

Let's get the worst out of the way. The art and animation. It needs work. This is to be expected from a young artist like yourself, so I trust that in time you'll be making great looking animations, but as of right now, animating and drawing people seems to be your greatest weakness. The backgrounds, tech and general feel for the world they were in was great though.

Voice acting could use some improvement, but I'd understand that you're utilizing what you have to the best of your abilities. In the mean time, I know you asked for help on this in your comments, subtitles would be great to have and prevent me from feeling that I missed something important that was said or misinterpreted it.

The universe, or "omniverse" that you have created is top-notch. Unique, intriguing, beautiful, complex, believable, alien, and yet familiar. Avatar's got nothing on this. Not only are the well thought out omniverse and beautiful world's amazing, but the factions, and people in them have been equally well done. The political tensions remind me greatly of Cold War spy games, and proxy wars, as well as Ancient Roman politics. You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into the creation of your "omniverse" and it most certainly deserves more than just two flash movies.

That was just the world your story is set in, and it gets me stoked and wanting to explore it. The story itself is not as strong as the world it takes place in, however, we only have half of it so far, and it IS a good story. The writing is good, but not great yet. The potential is there, I can feel it. And I mean serious potential. I really want you to do your damnedest to bring your writing to the next level, because with your ability to create such amazing worlds you have the potential to make amazing epics to rival even the greats.

Cinematography was excellent! It's effect was weakened by the quality of the animation, but you can't get much better in this regard.

Music, was good, uhm... what else? Just DAMN man... Have fun with this you know? I really want you to go somewhere with this. Write a book, graphic novel, something. You CAN make money off of this, and with 100% honesty I hope you get a movie deal or tv series for this eventually. I would love to see it.

Great potential my friend. I can tell you're going to grow into an amazing story teller.

All you people are getting me a touch curious of how much I can improve my animation skills were I finally to find a class to take xD Until then, as you've noted, I have the dual (pun not intended) problem of being a one-person staff who can't take too much time smoothing things out, and just lacking animation skill, especially in people, as you mentioned. I only hope your faith in my skill's improvement is well founded - there seems to be a good chance it is ^^. I think my strength in backgrounds comes from my painting work through the years, and the tech and feel I attribute, humbly, to my own imagination - I'm glad you liked them.

Acting wise, I think you understand well that I did what I could. A subtitled version is now up! Please give it a look and pm me to say if it helped at all...

It really warms the heart to know the thought I put into the world interests you people. In theory, there could be several episodes, and I had also thought that it could make a simple fighting game XD but that's a long ways off, should it ever come to pass.

The most disappointing thing to me is that, just as I later became dissatisfied with this story but found everything recorded, I would've liked to changed the story in part 2. But things are recorded, and all I can really do is what I did here - flesh out the world, do my best on the animation and cinematography, and get it out for you guys to enjoy.

So long as you guys keep giving such positive feedback, how could I not have fun here? xD My main focus with this is to keep making these episodes and maybe sucker someone into helping me code a game. I'd never intended Dual Arms in particular to be a written venture (though believe me, if you wanna see my writing, I DO WRITE).

The bad thing about being so young is that I lack the experience and resources to truly realize this vision of mine. The good thing about youth is its possibilities. If I should find some fortune to be had in the field of animation, I'll do all in my power to make Dual Arms into a full blown tv series, and should I ever find myself so lucky, I'll make DAMN sure to tell you guys about it.

Thank you, sir, for a most helpful and encouraging review. I hope to hear from you in the future.

Rated 4 / 5 stars2010-06-23 01:20:20

Storyline

I like the storyline but the animation was mediocre. The characters seem flat, the mouths seem robotic, and the legs look like michael jacksons moonwalk but going forward because they slide like there's no knees.

Rated 4.5 / 5 stars2010-06-22 22:34:24

Really good work!

The only thing I did not like about this would be the voice acting. The two guys at the start of the second scene were very diffiuclt to understand at times, and sometimes the words sound like they were cut off to early. Other then that this was very well done. I can not wait for part 2 to come out!!

Yeah, there were some problems with them. The subtitled version of the movie is almost done, and hopefully it will fix those problems. You may also be pleased to note that they have no lines in part 2, so one problem solved, I guess.